g., stromal component, adipocytes, epithelial cells, necrotic tissue, vascular tissue, etc.) and may not distinguish between the different compartments of the cell. With the ARIOL imaging system, different regions of tissue can be selected and quantitated, so as to avoid sections that contain non-regions of interest. Furthermore,

ARIOL also possesses the training capability to select nuclear vs. cytoplasmic staining. Also, large amounts of precious tissue are required for western blots, which may not be readily available. TMAs or IHC require less sample, and archived specimens can be used for a longer follow-up period. An average of 30–40 selleck serial sections can be cut from one of our TMAs, such that multiple comparisons can be drawn among different proteins of interest. For these reasons, we believe that TMAs will provide a reasonable method for analyzing large numbers of specimens. It has been shown that eIF4E is an independent prognostic factor in breast cancer [18]. We had selected tumor samples that showed a wide range of eIF4E protein expression by western blot which was significantly

higher than the normal tissues. The TMA staining showed that 4E was elevated in breast tissues compared to the normal tissues. Over-expression of eIF4E leads to the translation of structured 5′ UTR mRNAs which include c-Myc, cyclin D1, ODC, TLK1B and VEGF. These proteins have been studied individually in breast cancer patients. The results of the current study have shown that when eIF4E was elevated there was a corresponding Epoxomicin mw rise in the protein expression of c-Myc, cyclin

D1, ODC, TLK1B and VEGF. Thus eIF4E modulates the expression of the downstream effector proteins that regulate processes up regulated in cancer cells like the cell cycle, survival and cell growth. On the other hand, previous results using western blot analysis of eIF4E demonstrated that it did not correlate with node status, ER, PR, or HER-2/neu expression [18, 19]. As a negative control for our current study, we Alectinib chemical structure also showed that IHC analysis of eIF4E on TMA3 also did not correlate with ER, PR, or HER-2/neu. Western blot analysis of eIF4E from the corresponding samples showed similar results. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first time that a correlation has been made in a single study between eIF4E, c-Myc, cyclin D1, ODC, TLK1B and VEGF. Since the samples were obtained from a geographical area in which patients typically present with advanced stage breast cancer [28], this study has shown the major oncoproteins that are upregulated in this population. The hospital also possesses the clinical information as well as the outcome of these patients. This study becomes more relevant when we can correlate the results from the TMA study to the clinical outcome as we follow up with these patients. In conclusion, eIF4E preferentially upregulates gene products that are involved in worse clinical outcome in breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and others.